A new report recommends that the Canadian government force TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or announce a national ban to secure Canadians from surveillance, propaganda, and predatory data collection from the communist regime.
The Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s report titled ‘China’s Glaring Trojan Horse’ recommends that the federal government mimic the United States’ TikTok ban legislation by giving ByteDance the option to either sell TikTok to a suitable buyer or face a ban of the app in the country.
Lee claims that the Prime Minister and his cabinet could enforce this measure without needing to pass any legislation through Parliament, and could instead invoke the Investment Canada Act to bar an investment “injurious to National Security.”
“In other words, Ottawa could initiate the enforcement of ByteDance’s divestiture from TikTok or a ban (if it refuses or fails to divest), without bringing in new legislation,” reads the report.
In extensive detail, the report demonstrates numerous ways in which the People’s Republic of China can leverage their influence over TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to serve the interests of their regime at the expense of Canada’s citizens and democratic institutions.
While the report acknowledges that Western social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, and X collect a great deal of data from their users, Lee says that China collects data that is far more sensitive and not typically collected by Western social media platforms.
For example, TikTok was discovered to be collecting their user’s MAC address – a 12 digit number unique to every device that cannot be altered, enabling ByteDance to collect information from the device even after TikTok is deleted.
TikTok was also discovered to collect their users’ SIM card information, allowing ByteDance to collect the information from the card and precisely track their users’ geographic location.
ByteDance is legally required to give the PRC their data upon request and the PRC also has backdoor access to TikTok through the companion app CapCut, which collects a user’s biometric data.
The report also points to TikTok’s censorship of stories that do not bode well for the PRC’s narrative, including the censoring of stories relating to Hong Kong’s protests and China’s ruthless treatment of their Uyghur Muslim population.
“A report from the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University last year showed that topics often suppressed by the PRC in the Chinese information space like Hong Kong protests and the oppression of China’s Uyghur population “appear to be unusually underrepresented on TikTok” compared with Instagram.”
Canada is highlighted as being the target of a PRC influence operation, pushing videos accusing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor – the two Canadians detained by the PRC for over 1,000 days – of being spies and thus justifying their arrest.
Beyond the report’s recommendation to force TikTok’s divestment or have it banned, Lee also recommends that Canada pass legislation to regulate the cross-border transfer of data to foreign adversaries and data brokers and create penalties for companies who violate the regulations.
The report also recommends that governments work with social media platforms to create “universal transparency practices” that would require them to label state-affiliated entities, report on influence operations, and cyberattacks.
In the wake of the report’s release, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s director David Vigneault had some strong words about TikTok and the lack of safety that comes with using the app.
In an interview with the CBC, Vigneault said that it is “very clear” that the PRC are using TikTok to acquire data on people worldwide.
“As an individual, I would say that I would absolutely not recommend someone have TikTok,” said Vigneault.
“If you are, for whatever reason, getting in the crosshairs of the [People’s Republic of China], they will have a lot of information about you.”